Class | Subject | Book | Chapter | Session | Questions covered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
XII | English | Flamingo (NCERT) | 14 – A Roadside Stand | 2026-27 | 7 of 7 |
Chapter at a glance
Aspect | Key point |
|---|---|
Poet | Robert Frost (1874–1963), American poet |
Subject | A poor farmer’s roadside stand selling wild berries and golden squash, ignored by the “polished traffic” of city people |
Plea | Not charity (“a dole of bread”) but “some of the money, the cash” — city money to make their being expand and give them “the life of the moving-pictures’ promise” |
Satire | Government and social agencies — “greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey” — who “swarm over their lives enforcing benefits” |
Poet’s feeling | Pain at “so much childish longing in vain”; a wish to put them “out of their pain”, which he rejects the next day |
Form | Mostly rhyming lines, with irregular rhyme scheme — thought predominates over sound |
Think it out
Question P1
The city folk who drove through the countryside hardly paid any heed to the roadside stand or to the people who ran it. If at all they did, it was to complain. Which lines bring this out? What was their complaint about?
Answer
The lines:
The polished traffic passed with a mind ahead,
Or if ever aside a moment, then out of sorts
At having the landscape marred with the artless paint
Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong
The city people, intent on their destination, ignored the stand. If they glanced at it, they were annoyed (“out of sorts”) because the crude, unskilled (“artless”) painted signboards, with letters N and S written the wrong way, spoiled (“marred”) the beauty of the landscape.
“The polished traffic passed with a mind ahead, / Or if ever aside a moment, then out of sorts / At having the landscape marred with the artless paint / Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong”. They complained that the crudely painted signs spoiled the scenic beauty.
Question P2
What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?
Answer
They did not beg for charity — “It would not be fair to say for a dole of bread” — but asked for “some of the money, the cash” that flows in cities and keeps them prosperous. They wanted city people to stop and buy their produce so that they could have “some city money to feel in hand”, which might make their “being expand” and give them the better life of “the moving-pictures’ promise” — the comforts shown in films, which they felt the party in power was keeping from them.
Not for charity but for city people to buy their goods, so that a little city money in hand might improve their lives and give them the prosperity promised in films, which they felt the government was denying them.
Question P3
The government and other social service agencies appear to help the poor rural people, but actually do them no good. Pick out the words and phrases that the poet uses to show their double standards.
Answer
- “pitiful kin” who “are to be bought out and mercifully gathered in / To live in villages, next to the theatre and the store, / Where they won’t have to think for themselves anymore” — the poor are uprooted and made dependent.
- “greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey” — they pretend to do good but are greedy and exploit the poor like predators.
- “Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits” — benefits are forced on them.
- “calculated to soothe them out of their wits” — the schemes dull their minds.
- “And by teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day, / Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way” — they make the poor idle and destroy their natural, peaceful way of life.
“bought out and mercifully gathered in”, “won’t have to think for themselves anymore”, “greedy good-doers”, “beneficent beasts of prey”, “swarm over their lives enforcing benefits”, “calculated to soothe them out of their wits”, and “by teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day, / Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way”.
Question P4
What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it ‘vain’?
Answer
The childish longing is the poor rural people’s innocent hope that some car will stop at their stand — they wait all day “in almost open prayer / For the squeal of brakes, the sound of a stopping car”, for “Just one to inquire what a farmer’s prices are”. It is childish because it is simple and trusting.
It is vain (useless) because the “thousand selfish cars” pass without stopping. The few that stop do so only to use the yard to turn around, to ask the way, or to ask for petrol — none to buy anything.
The innocent hope that a passing car will stop and buy something from the stand. It is in vain because the selfish city people never stop to buy; the few who do stop only to turn around, ask the way, or ask for gas.
Question P5
Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the thought of the plight of the rural poor?
Answer
Sometimes I feel myself I can hardly bear
The thought of so much childish longing in vain,
The sadness that lurks near the open window there,
That waits all day in almost open prayer
and
I can’t help owning the great relief it would be
To put these people at one stroke out of their pain.
And then next day as I come back into the sane,
I wonder how I should like you to come to me
And offer to put me gently out of my pain.
The poet is so pained that he momentarily wishes their suffering could be ended at one stroke, but then realises that no one would like to be “put out of pain” in that way — what they need is empathy and real help.
“Sometimes I feel myself I can hardly bear / The thought of so much childish longing in vain…” and “I can’t help owning the great relief it would be / To put these people at one stroke out of their pain. / And then next day as I come back into the sane, / I wonder how I should like you to come to me / And offer to put me gently out of my pain.”
Talk about it
Question T1
The economic well-being of a country depends on a balanced development of the villages and the cities.
Answer
- In India, a large share of people live in villages and depend on agriculture; if villages remain poor, the nation cannot prosper.
- Cities depend on villages for food, raw materials and labour; villages depend on cities for markets, technology, jobs and services. Both are interdependent.
- Unbalanced development causes migration from villages to cities, leading to slums, unemployment and pressure on urban infrastructure, while villages lose their youth.
- Balanced development needs rural roads, electricity, schools, health care, internet, fair prices for farm produce, rural industries and market access (e.g. schemes like PMGSY, Digital India, MGNREGA).
- As Frost’s poem shows, prosperity concentrated in cities, while the rural poor are ignored, is unjust and harmful.
Villages and cities are interdependent; neglecting villages leads to rural poverty, mass migration and urban overcrowding. Balanced development — rural infrastructure, education, health, fair prices and market access along with urban growth — is essential for national prosperity.
Try this out
Question D1
Stop at a dhaba or a roadside eatery on the outskirts of your town or city to see: how many travellers stop there to eat; how many stop for other reasons; how the shopkeepers are treated; the kind of business they do; the kind of life they lead.
Answer
(Sample observation report.)
Visit to a roadside dhaba on the highway outside my town (one evening, about two hours)
- Travellers stopping to eat: about 25–30, mostly truck drivers, a few families and bikers.
- Other reasons: around 10 stopped to ask the way, use the washroom, rest, buy water or tea, or make a phone call.
- Treatment of shopkeepers: truck drivers were friendly and regular; some city travellers were impatient, bargained or complained about cleanliness and slow service; a few left without paying for water they used.
- Business: simple meals (dal, roti, sabzi, parathas), tea and snacks, bottled water and cold drinks; earnings depend on highway traffic and vary by season; the owner said a new bypass had reduced customers.
- Their life: long working hours from early morning to late night; family members work together; modest income, no fixed holidays; uncertain business, but they are hospitable and hopeful.
The visit reminded me of Frost’s poem: such roadside businesses depend on travellers who often hurry past.
A sample observation report recording the number of travellers stopping to eat and for other reasons, how the dhaba owners are treated (friendly regulars, impatient city travellers), the nature of the business (simple food, seasonal and traffic-dependent income), and their hard life of long hours and uncertain earnings.
Topic checklist
- ☒ City people’s indifference and the farmers’ plea (P1–P2)
- ☒ Hypocrisy of “good-doers” (P3)
- ☒ Childish longing; the poet’s pain (P4–P5)
- ☒ Balanced development; field visit (T1, D1)